The 500 - #248 - The Shape Of Jazz To Come - Ornette Coleman

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #248
Album Title: The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Artist: Ornette Coleman
Genre: Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz
Recorded: Radio Recorders, Hollywood, CA
Released: November, 1959
My age at release: Not born
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #417, down 169 spots from 248 since 2012
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Lonely Woman

As the 20th century girded for the hippies and the topsy turvy Swinging Sixties, the year 1959, marked a seismic shift in the world of jazz. In fact, In 2009, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) released a one-hour documentary, entitled 1959: The Year That Changed Jazz. It focused on the changes happening to jazz music at the time and how the genre was impacted and influenced by societal change. It is available on YouTube and is well worth the watch.

Between August and November of that pivotal year, four monumental jazz records were released: Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis; Time Out from The Dave Brubeck Quartet; Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus; and this week's record, The Shape Of Jazz To Come, by Ornette Coleman.

Four of the important and influential jazz records released in 1959.

I knew the music of Brubeck and Davis and was familiar with some of Mingus’ work. Kind Of Blue was the first jazz compact disc I purchased on the recommendation of a long-forgotten university classmate. Not only is it a personal Top Twenty record for me, it sits at position #12 on The 500 list. Time Out from Dave Brubeck's Quartet is also a record I have owned. It features the well-known jazz standard Take Five, which became a hit single on pop record charts in the 1960s and remains the biggest selling jazz single of all time. If I was going to introduce someone to Jazz, those two records would be worthy examples of the genre and safe bets for the uninitiated.

Single for Take Five by Dave Brubeck Quartet

Ornette Coleman is new to me. I knew nothing about him or his music but was delighted to learn of his powerful impact. Coleman helped develop the sub-genre of avant-garde, or free, jazz which eschews established conventions that include tempo, tone and traditional chord changes. Converts to the emerging style believed more improvisation would enhance the sounds of bebop and modal jazz established in the 1940s and 1950s. Following a move to California in 1958, Coleman connected with like-minded musicians willing to embark on his spontaneous form of music-making, and his first album, Something Else, was released.

It is now lauded as groundbreaking, but was poorly received at the time, with critics calling it "freakishly structured" and "dissonant". Established jazz heavyweight Miles Davis even questioned Coleman's sanity and felt he was "all screwed up inside." Davis, like many others, would come around to the genius of Coleman.

Legendary jazz musician, Miles Davis.

I've been thinking a lot lately about improvisation and risk-taking. I am currently part of a community theatre group that is in the "dress-rehearsal" stage of our preparation for eight Autumn performances. Right now, each rehearsal is a full run-through. If a player makes a mistake, such as flubbing a line, he, or she, is expected to keep going, improvising as necessary to get the scene back on track.

Poster for the upcoming theatre production I am in.

On several occasions I have tripped up only to find the recovery is both terrifying and exhilarating – terrifying to realize your error, then exhilarating at an extemporaneous recovery. A bonus is the euphoric rush of endorphins at the end of the scene. Phew! I imagine Coleman and his bandmates felt much the same as they pushed their musical experiments to the limit.

Coleman (right) with one iteration of his quartet.

An interesting aside to this evolution in jazz is that the trumpet player who worked with Coleman for many years, including the recording of this record, was the legendary Don Cherry. (NOTE: not to be confused with the Canadian hockey broadcaster Don Cherry, -- although, the idea of the blunt, brash, politically-incorrect former hockey player playing free jazz trumpet in his garishly loud suits and high collars makes me chuckle).

Canadian former broadcaster Don Cherry

I discovered trumpeter Don Cherry in 1997 through the music of his son, Eagle-Eye Cherry, and his debut record Desireless.

Desireless, the debut record from Eagle-Eye Cherry (1997)

Years ago, I bought Eagle-Eye's compact disc for his hit song, Save Tonight, and my wife and I fell in love with the entire album. It includes the title track, Desireless, an extended performance built from a hauntingly beautiful trumpet motif showcased originally by his father on his 1973 free jazz record, Relativity Suite.

Relativity Suite, from Don Cherry (1973)

Coleman died in June, 2015, at the age of 85. His pioneering work is now revered among jazz critics and fans as groundbreaking and seminal. It turns out his improvisational experiment paid off and, during the final decades of his life, he was lauded by his peers. Honours included a Pulitzer Prize for Music and a Lifetime Grammy Award. In 2009, he was accorded the prestigious Miles Davis Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Not bad for someone who was once considered "screwed up inside.”